BOLLOCKS
the phone went dead last night, very shortly after the previous post.
so the water was on, but the phone was off.
this morning the dial tone is back. i haven't been able to phone out since wednesday, i guess they want some money from me, but i can go online at least. meanwhile my £80 a fortnight (after any automatic debt reductions) state living allowance hasn't arrived today.
so web access back, but no money. coming soon ... no electric, theres just 13 pence left in the meter.
Friday, 24 January 2003
Thursday, 23 January 2003
THE ART OF INTERRUPTION
the 20th century marriage between political-social commitment and artistic experiment.
"Kafka's stories begin with the banal of everyday. These events and experiences are excessively ordinary and the writing is blank....It is not simply the events that are banal, but the writing of them is banal....It is a writing which strives for nothing. These stories, literally, go nowhere.... Unable to identify even the most common things, can cause a loss of self-identity. It is not knowing where you are, a displacement without a system to guide you, or boundaries to confine you. The writing does not approach meaning nor does it accept it."
The art of stalking.
"A socially committed art, which can be "read", tends to be realistic and strives to state a meaning and render a significance. An art committed to itself is less easily "read", tends not to be realistic, confounds meaning and disturbs significance. This art has tended to be associated with the modern and the avant-garde. Realism, on the other hand, has been confined to an antique, no longer relevant and Positivist tradition."
The Myth of Liberation, Illusion of Control
"Cyberspace is very often presented as a place of freedom. Freedom is considered as a natural quality of the Net and cyberspace. The only thing to be done is to defend freedom, to protect this natural state of cyberspace. Such an opinion is contradicted with another concept saying that wherever and whenever we have to do with plurality of groups, interests and policies, we also face the struggle for power and all consequences of it. According to this opinion there is no freedom on the Net but only wars."
Leni, Walt and Walter: Deutsch-Amerikanische Freundschaften
(by Esther Leslie)
mid 20th century american animation : "The avant-garde temporality, a time of interruption / confounded linearity / moments, is abolished in favour of narrative / logic / development and closure".
interruption: "a 20th century avant-garde strategy of fragmentation designed to defeat a given continuity's ideological effect." (robert b ray)
the 20th century marriage between political-social commitment and artistic experiment.
"Kafka's stories begin with the banal of everyday. These events and experiences are excessively ordinary and the writing is blank....It is not simply the events that are banal, but the writing of them is banal....It is a writing which strives for nothing. These stories, literally, go nowhere.... Unable to identify even the most common things, can cause a loss of self-identity. It is not knowing where you are, a displacement without a system to guide you, or boundaries to confine you. The writing does not approach meaning nor does it accept it."
The art of stalking.
"A socially committed art, which can be "read", tends to be realistic and strives to state a meaning and render a significance. An art committed to itself is less easily "read", tends not to be realistic, confounds meaning and disturbs significance. This art has tended to be associated with the modern and the avant-garde. Realism, on the other hand, has been confined to an antique, no longer relevant and Positivist tradition."
The Myth of Liberation, Illusion of Control
"Cyberspace is very often presented as a place of freedom. Freedom is considered as a natural quality of the Net and cyberspace. The only thing to be done is to defend freedom, to protect this natural state of cyberspace. Such an opinion is contradicted with another concept saying that wherever and whenever we have to do with plurality of groups, interests and policies, we also face the struggle for power and all consequences of it. According to this opinion there is no freedom on the Net but only wars."
Leni, Walt and Walter: Deutsch-Amerikanische Freundschaften
(by Esther Leslie)
mid 20th century american animation : "The avant-garde temporality, a time of interruption / confounded linearity / moments, is abolished in favour of narrative / logic / development and closure".
interruption: "a 20th century avant-garde strategy of fragmentation designed to defeat a given continuity's ideological effect." (robert b ray)
TRANSHUMAN
In 1999, with help from such contributors as Nick Bostrom, David Pearce, Max More, Anders Sandberg, and Kathryn Aegis, the WTA compiled the Transhumanist Declaration. It declares the following:
Humanity will be radically changed by technology in the future. We foresee the feasibility of redesigning the human condition, including such parameters as the inevitability of aging, limitations on human and artificial intellects, unchosen psychology, suffering, and our confinement to the planet earth.
Systematic research should be put into understanding these coming developments and their long-term consequences.
Transhumanists think that by being generally open and embracing of new technology we have a better chance of turning it to our advantage than if we try to ban or prohibit it.
Transhumanists advocate the moral right for those who so wish to use technology to extend their mental and physical capacities and to improve their control over their own lives. We seek personal growth beyond our current biological limitations.
In planning for the future, it is mandatory to take into account the prospect of dramatic technological progress. It would be tragic if the potential benefits failed to materialize because of ill-motivated technophobia and unnecessary prohibitions. On the other hand, it would also be tragic if intelligent life went extinct because of some disaster or war involving advanced technologies.
We need to create forums where people can rationally debate what needs to be done, and a social order where responsible decisions can be implemented.
Transhumanism advocates the well-being of all sentience (whether in artificial intellects, humans, nonhuman animals, or possible extraterrestrial species) and encompasses many principles of modern secular humanism. Transhumanism does not support any particular party, politician or political platform.
In 1999, with help from such contributors as Nick Bostrom, David Pearce, Max More, Anders Sandberg, and Kathryn Aegis, the WTA compiled the Transhumanist Declaration. It declares the following:
Humanity will be radically changed by technology in the future. We foresee the feasibility of redesigning the human condition, including such parameters as the inevitability of aging, limitations on human and artificial intellects, unchosen psychology, suffering, and our confinement to the planet earth.
Systematic research should be put into understanding these coming developments and their long-term consequences.
Transhumanists think that by being generally open and embracing of new technology we have a better chance of turning it to our advantage than if we try to ban or prohibit it.
Transhumanists advocate the moral right for those who so wish to use technology to extend their mental and physical capacities and to improve their control over their own lives. We seek personal growth beyond our current biological limitations.
In planning for the future, it is mandatory to take into account the prospect of dramatic technological progress. It would be tragic if the potential benefits failed to materialize because of ill-motivated technophobia and unnecessary prohibitions. On the other hand, it would also be tragic if intelligent life went extinct because of some disaster or war involving advanced technologies.
We need to create forums where people can rationally debate what needs to be done, and a social order where responsible decisions can be implemented.
Transhumanism advocates the well-being of all sentience (whether in artificial intellects, humans, nonhuman animals, or possible extraterrestrial species) and encompasses many principles of modern secular humanism. Transhumanism does not support any particular party, politician or political platform.
Wednesday, 22 January 2003
Ferragus
In the medieval prose romance Valentine and Orson, the giant of Portugal. In his castle he kept the great Brazen Head, that told those who consulted it whatever they required to know.
In the medieval prose romance Valentine and Orson, the giant of Portugal. In his castle he kept the great Brazen Head, that told those who consulted it whatever they required to know.
Nobody walking along the pavement
I looked out of the window. There was no-one walking along the pavement. All of the people must have been somewhere else. The next time I looked out of the window the pavement was still deserted.
I looked out of the window. There was no-one walking along the pavement. All of the people must have been somewhere else. The next time I looked out of the window the pavement was still deserted.
Tuesday, 21 January 2003
THE WORD SPY
solar guerrilla
(SOH.lur guh.ril.uh) n. A person who uses an alternative energy source such as solar power to illegally direct electricity back to the public utility grid.
celebreality
(suh.LEB.ree.al.uh.tee) n. The real life of a celebrity; a TV show format in which one or more celebrities participate in real-life situations
supersoap
(SOO.pur.sohp) n. A soap that coats the skin with a thin film designed to ward off bacteria
grandboomer
(GRAND.boo.mur) n. A grandparent who is a part of the baby boom generation.
VIA...
via my analog life:
TV jargon: 'Anticipointment',
"What viewers experience when you fall short of their expectations after over-promoting a story or show."
"The world's first truly artificial organism has been engineered by researchers in California. The bacterium makes an amino acid that no other organism uses to build proteins."
"Iraq has blocked access to e-mail following an electronic campaign by the US urging key military and civilian figures to turn against President Saddam Hussein."
"Within a year you could be able to "touch" someone over your mobile phone."
via anglepoised.com:
sample pages of David Shrigley's new(ish) book, Human Achievement
via link machine go
Excerpt from A Box of Matches by Nicholson Baker
via my analog life:
TV jargon: 'Anticipointment',
"What viewers experience when you fall short of their expectations after over-promoting a story or show."
"The world's first truly artificial organism has been engineered by researchers in California. The bacterium makes an amino acid that no other organism uses to build proteins."
"Iraq has blocked access to e-mail following an electronic campaign by the US urging key military and civilian figures to turn against President Saddam Hussein."
"Within a year you could be able to "touch" someone over your mobile phone."
via anglepoised.com:
sample pages of David Shrigley's new(ish) book, Human Achievement
via link machine go
Excerpt from A Box of Matches by Nicholson Baker
Monday, 20 January 2003
THE SECRET HOUSE
"....Gradually (they) realised that the 'rare earths' were poorly named. They were not rare at all. Yttrium, the first of them all to be found, and used now as the red phosphor in your color tv, is more abundant than lead. Nor are they specifically earths: traces of the same yttrium as in your tv have been measured on the moon and in the sun...."
david Bodanis
"....Gradually (they) realised that the 'rare earths' were poorly named. They were not rare at all. Yttrium, the first of them all to be found, and used now as the red phosphor in your color tv, is more abundant than lead. Nor are they specifically earths: traces of the same yttrium as in your tv have been measured on the moon and in the sun...."
david Bodanis
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